Ypsilanti’s Water St demolition turns brownfield to green

Minimal surprises and an extra funding boost are helping the demolition of Ypsilanti’s Water Street properties go as planned.”We are still doing demolition, and we should be done by the end of August,” says Ypsilanti’s assistant city manager, April McGrath. “Everything is going as planned. That’ll be really nice for our community, not to have to see the blight anymore.”The city has been demolishing half a dozen vacant buildings, ranging from small residential and commercial to industrial, on the site. The project also received an additional $150,000 grant from the Downriver Community Conference to remove a cement slab, bringing total funding to $1 million.Fortunately, McGrath says, no gas tanks or anything else requiring expensive cleanup were found at the site; the trickiest thing removed so far were hoists used for changing oil. That frees up more grant money for remediation of the site and otherwise readying it for future developers.”We were really happy that was all we found,” she says. “We’re going to do everything we can to prep that site.”McGrath said there still aren’t any specific plans for the plot of land, with the economy and credit market in a downturn. However, city officials still get calls from potential interested parties waiting for a market upturn. The 38-acre parcel just east of downtown was assembled a few years ago with the idea of redeveloping it into a dense, urban area that capitalizes on both its border on Michigan Avenue and the Huron River. Those plans took a big hit when the initial developer pulled out and the real estate market crashed.The fallout occurred when the city fell into a budget crunch while paying off the bonds used to acquire the property. However, city leaders are sticking to the urban-based theme for the site.Source: April McGrath, assistant city manager for YpsilantiWriter: Kristin Lukowski